


Taral

by idrilhadhafang



Series: The Broken Edge AUs [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dark Poe, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Related, M/M, callbacks to the legendsverse, knight of ren poe, married darkpilot, married kylo ren and poe, poe as a knight of ren, rated explicit for a brief scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-06 23:09:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10346673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Ten facts in a universe where Poe Dameron joined the Knights of Ren.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Freestyle AU
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author's Notes: Yes, Poe's Ren name is a throwback to the Darth Who contest. Basically, it was back when LOTF was still running, and people were thinking up Darth names for Jacen Solo. Though "Caedus" won, "Taral" was one of the alternatives. "Taral" means "one who protects". I thought it was appropriate. 
> 
> Also, Poe-joining-Ben-as-part-of-the-Knights was a concept that I'd been throwing around for some time. I thought it would be fascinating, at least. 
> 
> Also, I admit that I'm not on my A-game titles wise. Sorry.

1\. It's out of safety that they go to Snoke in the first place. Snoke gave them an offer to protect them from Naris -- who's trying to be a vigilante and get at least one of them arrested, or both of them. He'd find a way -- and they'll have to take that protection. Poe can't say he likes this, but he'll do what he can. So will Ben, for that matter.   
  
2\. It's the Supreme Leader who reveals that Poe is Force sensitive. "When you created that bond with him, you must have opened up his Force Sensitivity," he says.   
  
"But how? How could it have lay dormant this long?"  
  
"Well, I doubt that Poe Dameron is the only one. After all, there have been many cases of Force sensitives who did not recognize their potential until later in life."  
  
"Let me train him." _Let me teach him to tap into his abilities, the glory he holds._  
  
Silence. Then, "Very well."  
  
That night, when the lights are low, Kylo Ren goes to his husband and removes his mask. It's the sort that he doesn't idly do. There is something about removing the mask that feels like removing a sense of safety, a protective layer from the galaxy. Hux has mostly seen him unmasked by accident, and hasn't talked about it (they have an unspoken agreement to simply not talk about it, and that's one of the few things in their vitriolic working relationship they can agree on) and the Supreme Leader has occasionally seen him unmasked, but Poe is the only one that Kylo trusts with this, honestly, completely.   
  
Their kisses are hungry, eager, and in between them, Kylo gasps out what he's learned from the Supreme Leader.  
  
Poe looks at him. "I'm _what?"_  
  
"Force sensitive."  
  
"But how was I able to hide for that long -- "  
  
"You aren't the first one," Kylo says. "There were plenty others. And you need a teacher. I can be that to you. You can see what I see, know what I know...and wield it as I wield it."  
  
Silence. Poe seems to be lost in thought, taking it all in.   
  
Then, "Teach me."   
  
Stars, the look in his husband's eyes...they are practically burning. Kylo looks at him and already he wants him, wants him terribly, but he restrains himself. "I knew you'd make the right decision. Close your eyes, Poe."  
  
Poe tilts his head. "I -- "  
  
"Close your eyes. Open yourself to me, open yourself to the Force. Let it in."  
  
Poe does, and Kylo can sense what he feels, what he sees. Smoky skies, cities in flames, battlefields. Wounded pilots falling out of the skies, wounded soldiers falling down in the mud --  
  
He draws away, suddenly, horrified, and speaks. "You...you can open your eyes, Poe. You've seen enough."  
  
Poe doesn't. He's drawing it in further, this anger, this rage, these feelings of helplessness, until finally he opens his eyes, awakens. He is practically a burning Dark sun, and Kylo is rooted to the spot in amazement. This man, this beautiful, glorious man who is as radiant as a god...  
  
"How do you feel?" Kylo says.   
  
"Like I have a purpose. It's making sense now."  
  
"What makes sense, my pilot?"  
  
"Everything. I thought the Republic had everything together, but they didn't. They never did." Poe exhales. "How could I have been so stupid?"  
  
"I was too. We were deceived, my pilot. But now...now we will be deceived no longer."  
  
He pulls Poe close and inhales his scent like it's the only one worth breathing. He loves Poe, how he loves him so much. And whatever happens, the Resistance will never get their hands on his beloved, and neither will anyone in the First Order harm Poe.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
3\. Poe takes to the training with curiosity and enthusiasm, the different holobooks that he has to read, the different exercises he does with Kylo (and occasionally, the lovemaking that follows; there is something about the way his husband's body weaves and moves that still makes Poe want him), the different techniques in the Force that he learns...  
  
It's like a whole new world has opened up in front of Poe, and he loves it, by the Force, he loves it. It's like the first time he saw into his husband's head, back when they were not yet married, seeing every worry and bit of agony, smoothing them over -- and yet also feeling that sense of connection, of power.  
  
Poe is already starving for it, for more of it, and he doubts he can get enough.   
  
  
4\. Poe chooses the name "Taral" after one of his first missions, a piloting mission to Telos. One who protects. It seems appropriate, all things considered. Protecting a better, brighter future. Other beings like to call them monsters, and tell stories about those monsters, but Taral knows they are not monsters. They are doing the right thing. Maybe not the thing that the Resistance wants, but the Resistance wants to preserve the Republic, preserve corruption. The First Order wants to eliminate that.   
  
Only in a backwards galaxy would that be considered evil. Unfortunately, they live in a backwards galaxy, so they have to fight against it.   
  
  
5\. He dislikes being parted from his husband, but in the end, it is a necessity. It seems that wherever they are they have to be parted at at least one point. Kylo has his missions to go on, Taral has his. They kiss, long and lingering, before going on their missions, and Taral makes certain to memorize every physical detail to keep him warm. Warm with his husband's love, the love they share.   
  
When they reunite, he hates the way that his husband seems to become increasingly conflicted. The death of his aunt is one example. Taral swears sometimes he can hear Kylo's voice in the night in the quarters they share, pleading for guidance, and he wishes he could take away every bit of doubt Kylo feels.   
  
The night they make love, the night that Alora Danes-Skywalker is killed, Taral tries to communicate the basics through the kisses he places to Kylo's skin and the fingers he trails across it as well. He's alternately tender and rough (as Kylo had begged him to "make me forget"), possessive bites placed to Kylo's skin and Taral feels a strange thrill because Kylo is his, his, completely his...  
  
They make love throughout that night, Kylo eager to forget, Taral eager to make him understand. Because there is plenty wrong with the Resistance.   
  
There's nothing wrong with them.   
  
  
6\. Of all the people that Taral expected to see again, Jessika Pava was not one of them. But on Tuanul, when the stormtroopers drag out the woman who saved Kylo's life in the deserts of Jakku fourteen years prior, Taral can't help but feel a sort of shock. What is _she_ doing here? She, of all beings. Did the Resistance brainwash her? They must have. The Resistance call the First Order monsters, but they are much worse. Beings like Luke too. Luke's Order threatened both him and Kylo, could have ruined them both if Snoke hadn't offered them safety.   
  
He has to save Jessika. She can get away from them. She can get away from the Resistance, join them.   
  
That doesn't happen.   
  
Kylo gets the location of the map from her, hidden in a utility droid, an R3 unit. But a stormtrooper named Finn breaks Jess out, and by the time he and Kylo get to Jakku, Finn is gone, Jess is gone, and the strange girl Mitaka mentioned with the three buns is also gone.   
  
  
7\. It's during the battle of Starkiller Base that Taral is shot down. When he wakes, he's in the Resistance base, Jess standing over him and applying a cold cloth to his head.   
  
She smiles weakly at him. "Good to see you up, Poe."  
  
He can't help but wince at the name. He doesn't have as strong a repulsion to it as Kylo does the name "Ben", but it reminds him too much of a past he's long left behind.   
  
"Jessika." His voice sounds like it's been scraped raw. "Am I a prisoner here or your guest?" He's heard the stories about what the Resistance does to its prisoners. Best he can do is crack a joke. Taral Ren: when the going gets tough, he cracks jokes at the going.   
  
"Poe. Come on." She smiles. "You've made better jokes than that."  
  
"Well, you did shoot me down."  
  
Jess sighs. "Look, I really am sorry," she says. "It was -- "  
  
"Yeah. Kill or be killed." That Taral can understand. That he can agree with.   
  
"You're in the Resistance base. You got badly injured in the crash."  
  
"And BB-8 -- "  
  
"He's getting patched up," Jess says.   
  
"And Kylo..."  
  
Jess sighs. "I don't know. I really don't."  
  
"Where is Kylo?" That's the worst part. He can't feel anything, he can't feel the bond with his husband over the Force, for all intents and purposes, the Resistance has done what the Jedi initially wanted to do: split him and Kylo up.   
  
"I don't know! Honest, I don't! The last I heard, he was down on that Starkiller planet..."  
  
And Taral freezes. The scavenger...  
  
He can remember how he felt the scavenger's anger during her duel with Kylo, the call of the Dark Side swirling about her, and that was before he was shot down.   
  
"The planet? Starkiller Base?"  
  
"It's gone." Jess says.   
  
And Taral may be momentarily suppressed in terms of the Force, but he can still feel fury. Bigger than his body, bigger than the Force.  
  
"And to think that scavenger called _Kylo_ a monster."  
  
"Poe, I'm sorry," Jess says. "That's as far as I heard."  
  
When he gets out of there, he'll kill the scavenger for what she took from him. This he knows for certain. He will kill her, and everyone else who was responsible for this, all of this. At least Jess...  
  
Is that pity in her eyes? Taral doesn't know.   
  
It's a trick. It surely is. It's like the Supreme Leader said. The Resistance doesn't love, or feel compassion. They're murderers, all of them, monsters.   
  
For even Jess, it's probably just an act.   
  
8\. He's already restless. He needs to get out of the infirmary. He's not even angry at the scavenger   
  
_no, he corrects himself, Jaina. Jaina's alive._  
  
after all, she continues to impress him. First with blocking him from her mind and reading his in turn, then summoning Grandfather's old lightsaber  
  
 _and should he have expected any less from a Skywalker herself?_  
  
and now this.  
  
He's humiliated. And yet he feels almost like a teacher watching his student grow.   
Considering he was her old teacher, it's fitting.   
  
It's the fact that his husband is out there and he can't get to him that he's angry with. Taral is out there, and though he's not being tortured, Kylo knows he may be in the future. The First Order knows full well what the Resistance does to its prisoners. What the Rebellion did to theirs, and what Saw Gerrera's Partisans did to theirs.   
  
He has to get out of there. Find Jaina, find Taral -- he can picture the outcome too well. Taral back in his arms, Jaina by his side and embracing her full potential. Him, showing off the galaxy to Jaina and seeing her amazement even as he does so.   
  
And here, in this infirmary, Kylo Ren doubts he's ever felt more trapped.  
  
  
9\. They're deliberating what to do to him.   
  
Not with him. To him. Taral knows that it's "to", not "with". Some are talking about execution, some are talking about stripping him of the Force entirely. General Organa-Solo has to step in when cooler heads need to prevail.   
  
Taral knows he has to get out of here. The suppressants are wearing off, thank the Force. He can feel the Force again, and he can feel Kylo is already on his way.   
  
Kylo Ren is alive.   
  
Taral could grin in this moment. Kylo Ren is alive and he's on his way. Jess lied. Thank the Force Jess lied.   
  
Thank the Force that the scavenger, that wretched scavenger, didn't actually kill Kylo.   
  
The stormtroopers disembark first. Taral can feel them. It's while he's working on getting the door open, getting his lightsaber, and more that he feels them. The Resistance tries to stand up to them but they are mown down.   
  
Taral fights his way towards the hangar, BB-8 rolling beside him, just freed from his own captivity, slaughtering anyone who tries to stop him. And finally, across the hall, he sees Kylo.   
  
His Kylo.   
  
Taral runs to him, embraces him, and to a casual onlooker, it would seem strange to see two Knights of Ren unmask if only to embrace the other, kiss the other, in a hallway full of dead bodies. It would seem even macabre. But this is their relationship. Their love. Macabre to others, perfect to themselves.   
  
"Kylo. Your eye -- " Taral tenderly traces the scar on the left side of Kylo's face.  
  
"I'm all right. I'm here." Kylo rests his head against Taral's. "My pilot, my beloved -- what did they do to you?"  
  
"I'm okay."  
  
They kiss again, more softly, and then Taral speaks long after the kiss is broken. "Let's leave this place behind for good." Some of the Resistance has escaped, Taral can feel it, but they can handle it in time.   
  
Right now, Taral needs to head back to the First Order, as does Kylo.   
  
  
10\. They share stories when they get back, Taral about the battle, Kylo about his battle, and Taral comforts him all the while. They comfort each other, clinging to the other like one would cling to a raft. Taral doesn't know what's going to happen now. But he knows he'll face it, with Kylo and the others, in whatever form it will take. 


End file.
